Skywatcher ED80 Help

[daveangie0110]

Hi All

 

I have a Nexstar 6SE with a F6.3 Focal reducer, i am doing more and more astrophotography, i image the Planets with my ZWOASI120MC Camera and the Orion nebula with my Canon 600D DSLR with some very good results (For me    ) i want to get a telescope which will give me better images of DSO, someone said to me keep my 6SE and get something like a Skywatcher ED80 on a NEQ5 Pro or a NEQ6 Pro mount along with a Skywatcher ST80 as a guide scope which will give me very good images of DSO and keep my 6SE for planetary imaging.

 

Can anyone answer these questions that i have.

 

Can i put the 6SE OTA on the NEQ5 or 6 mount if so what sort of images can i expect ?

Has anyone got a 6SE on a NEQ5 or 6 mount as there set up ?

With a Skywatcher ED80 and a ST80 guide scope what would be the longest exposure you could do ?

 

Many thanks

[MattJenko]

- You can put the 6SE on those mounts. The images you can achieve with the 6SE are of the narrower field of view variety and because of the longer focal length, they tend to used more for planetary and lunar work as you have already been advised. Have a look at images with this telescope on AstroBin : http://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=6SE&search_type=0&license=0&license=1&license=2&license=3&license=4&license=5&license=6&telescope_type=any&telescope_type=0&telescope_type=1&telescope_type=2&telescope_type=3&telescope_type=4&telescope_type=5&telescope_type=6&telescope_type=7&telescope_type=8&telescope_type=9&telescope_type=10&telescope_type=11&telescope_type=12&telescope_type=13&telescope_type=14&telescope_type=15&telescope_type=16&telescope_type=17&telescope_type=18&telescope_type=19&telescope_type=20&telescope_type=21&telescope_type=22&camera_type=any&camera_type=0&camera_type=1&camera_type=2&camera_type=3&camera_type=4&camera_type=5

Exposure length is not dependant on the telescope in use. It is more to do with how long you can guide the mount successfully and also it is dependant on light pollution and the brightness of the target. You want to avoid saturating pixels and also avoid having too much background noise. This means that a cluster may only require a few minutes whereas a narrowband exposure of a nebula can be anything up to 30 minutes or more. All are possible with the ED80 (and with any other scope) it is the other factors which will be the limiting ones.

I have an ED80 and ST80, and have done 20 minutes for some NB and 15 minutes for some broadband images, and could go further, but my guiding and fear are the limiting factors, not the telescope.

Cheers

Matt